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if you are happy that you can save some money this way, i think you are super lame. i am sad that over paid people like me and most of yall are now even less re

if you are happy that you can save some money this way, i think you are super lame. i am sad that over paid people like me and most of yall are now even less responsible for helping poor people (among other things, i know... )

abfan1127 9y ago
like freeing up income to donate to charities that actually move people out of poverty?
- chrisan 9y ago
  is that the first thing on people's mind when they take home more money?
  - guelo 9y ago
    No.
- the_cat_kittles 9y ago
  im all for that, but i doubt that this provision in the tax bill is going to result in a net increase in charitable giving. and its compounded by the fact that r’s will use the huge deficit they just created as an argument for cutting services for poor people.
bassman9000 9y ago
You can always donate the surplus to private entities.
- emodendroket 9y ago
  I feel like the people decrying the tax bill do not consider that an adequate means of addressing the problem.
pascalxus 9y ago
First of all, this bill mainly helps those earning less than 315K per family < 157K for singles. If you're making a big salary working for tech, your not as well off as you think. You may be earning x10 more than a the average "poor" person, but after income taxes, sales tax, property tax, etc, it's barely x5 to x6. And if google forces you to live on the penninsula, then your living costs are x5 to x10. I'm sure there are plenty of high tech working families in 150k to 250k range who are barely making ends meat. Those with kids will be especially hit hard: the exemption for those kids is now gone. Millenials in CA are being hit really hard with this housing crisis: the birth rate is at it's lowest it's ever been since the great depression in 1933.
- munk-a 9y ago
  Granted, everything about this is in constant flux but... I thought the child exemptions were back in and stronger than before? Also, are you getting value out of living on the penninsula? If so, is it worth the cost you're paying? If not... move. There are plenty of companies outside of SV and now quite a few of the companies there have very flexible remote working options. As for your 10x income being reduced to 6x, do you honestly feel justified making more than 2x as someone else? Why are you as a person worth twice any other person?
  - woolvalley 9y ago
    You get a somewhat reasonable commute. Fairly high value.
  - meritt 9y ago
    Exemptions have been removed entirely. That's a deduction of $4,050 per child that went away. However, Child Tax Credits increased from $1,000 to $2,000 (with $1,400 being fully refundable). For someone in a 25% tax bracket, the additional $1,000 credit is basically the same as a $4,000 exemption.
  - pascalxus 9y ago
    It's because that's the intersection of value that an employer is willing to pay for and people are willing to work for. If everyone was paid exactly the same, then there probably wouldn't be any doctors because they'd never break even on their medical school payments, etc. Higher wages is society/capitalism's way of incentivizing more people to go into that area. there's greater need there. By paying more, more people are willing to join that occupation. It seems weird to take the fruits of someone's labor. I mean, if you can make your bed twice as fast as I can, I don't demand that you come over and make 1/3 of my bed. And if you grow your crops, but do it much better, yielding more fruit, it would be wrong of me to take a 1/3 of your crops.
tunesmith 9y ago
Most people reading this (outside of VC kajillionaires) are not your enemy. But it does go to show how messed up things are. We recently saw a financial planner. Compared to most people we know personally (in a variety of non-tech industries), we are doing really well with tech salary. But compared to retirement projections, we are actually only treading water. We might be able to retire a little early, but only if things don't take a major downturn. It underscored just how whacked things are. The next twenty years will change society. What now seems like a personal responsibility (for everyone to save for retirement) will fail so thoroughly that it will become a massive societal problem. I know so many people who pat themselves on the back for "being responsible" by putting a few hundred bucks into their Roth during tax season. It's dumbfounding how insufficient that is. Students and people with service income think that tech people have it made. In reality we're probably more like the middle managers of the early 80's, earning one notch above the blue collar union folks. We don't really know if we'll make it to retirement before ageism or a crashing market will make our savings irrelevant.

abfan1127 9y ago

like freeing up income to donate to charities that actually move people out of poverty?

chrisan 9y ago
is that the first thing on people's mind when they take home more money?
- guelo 9y ago
  No.
the_cat_kittles 9y ago
im all for that, but i doubt that this provision in the tax bill is going to result in a net increase in charitable giving. and its compounded by the fact that r’s will use the huge deficit they just created as an argument for cutting services for poor people.

bassman9000 9y ago

You can always donate the surplus to private entities.

emodendroket 9y ago
I feel like the people decrying the tax bill do not consider that an adequate means of addressing the problem.

pascalxus 9y ago

First of all, this bill mainly helps those earning less than 315K per family < 157K for singles. If you're making a big salary working for tech, your not as well off as you think. You may be earning x10 more than a the average "poor" person, but after income taxes, sales tax, property tax, etc, it's barely x5 to x6. And if google forces you to live on the penninsula, then your living costs are x5 to x10. I'm sure there are plenty of high tech working families in 150k to 250k range who are barely making ends meat. Those with kids will be especially hit hard: the exemption for those kids is now gone. Millenials in CA are being hit really hard with this housing crisis: the birth rate is at it's lowest it's ever been since the great depression in 1933.

munk-a 9y ago
Granted, everything about this is in constant flux but... I thought the child exemptions were back in and stronger than before? Also, are you getting value out of living on the penninsula? If so, is it worth the cost you're paying? If not... move. There are plenty of companies outside of SV and now quite a few of the companies there have very flexible remote working options. As for your 10x income being reduced to 6x, do you honestly feel justified making more than 2x as someone else? Why are you as a person worth twice any other person?
- woolvalley 9y ago
  You get a somewhat reasonable commute. Fairly high value.
- meritt 9y ago
  Exemptions have been removed entirely. That's a deduction of $4,050 per child that went away. However, Child Tax Credits increased from $1,000 to $2,000 (with $1,400 being fully refundable). For someone in a 25% tax bracket, the additional $1,000 credit is basically the same as a $4,000 exemption.
- pascalxus 9y ago
  It's because that's the intersection of value that an employer is willing to pay for and people are willing to work for. If everyone was paid exactly the same, then there probably wouldn't be any doctors because they'd never break even on their medical school payments, etc. Higher wages is society/capitalism's way of incentivizing more people to go into that area. there's greater need there. By paying more, more people are willing to join that occupation. It seems weird to take the fruits of someone's labor. I mean, if you can make your bed twice as fast as I can, I don't demand that you come over and make 1/3 of my bed. And if you grow your crops, but do it much better, yielding more fruit, it would be wrong of me to take a 1/3 of your crops.

tunesmith 9y ago

Most people reading this (outside of VC kajillionaires) are not your enemy. But it does go to show how messed up things are. We recently saw a financial planner. Compared to most people we know personally (in a variety of non-tech industries), we are doing really well with tech salary. But compared to retirement projections, we are actually only treading water. We might be able to retire a little early, but only if things don't take a major downturn. It underscored just how whacked things are. The next twenty years will change society. What now seems like a personal responsibility (for everyone to save for retirement) will fail so thoroughly that it will become a massive societal problem. I know so many people who pat themselves on the back for "being responsible" by putting a few hundred bucks into their Roth during tax season. It's dumbfounding how insufficient that is. Students and people with service income think that tech people have it made. In reality we're probably more like the middle managers of the early 80's, earning one notch above the blue collar union folks. We don't really know if we'll make it to retirement before ageism or a crashing market will make our savings irrelevant.